Around the neighborhood

Dobrae Utra! I thought this morning I would take you on a little tour of my new neighborhood. I have just begun traveling around it by myself, and this is actually quite an accomplishment.

You see, everything here pretty much looks the same. Remember, the Soviet system was all about producing things as quickly as possible. You can guess how that impacted the quality! So there are dozens of buildings in every neighborhood that look very similar. They are all sort of, well, falling apart. It is really quite ugly. So you can imagine that it is hard to get around town when you can't read the signs and everything looks the same.

Another neighborhood feature is the big pipe. There is a huge pipe, about two feet in diameter, that runs above the ground through most neighborhoods. It is about one foot off the ground. It looks quite old and I have no idea what it carries, if it even carries anything anymore. The neighborhood people use it as a sort of bench when they are chatting with their friends or waiting for the bus. It's weird to see a big pipe above ground.

The roads and sidewalks here are in terrible shape. You really need to look where you are going or you will end up covered in mud or with a twisted ankle. One of the men I am traveling with says he is going to recommend to his students that they become ankle specialists and move to Russia - they would make a fortune on all the sidewalk injuries!

My neighborhood is right next to the military post. In fact, the street I live on is called "Red Army Street." So we see a lot of military men in the neighborhood. We also see a lot of stray animals. There are many dogs and cats that roam about.

You are thinking, "this sounds terrible." But not really. All you need is to actually go into one of these Russian apartments. You will see that the people take care of their homes even more carefully than most Americans do. They cannot do much about the ugliness outside, so they make the inside beautiful. The apartments are small, yes, and perhaps the furniture is old. But there is always something warm and delicious cooking, not a speck of dirt in sight, and lots of conversation, even with a guest like me who speaks no Russian. You may look at my pictures and think that this is a very different place I am living, and you're right. But the important things, the relationships between people, are the same. I bet you would find this is true in homes almost anywhere in the world.

Pot Luck

Goodness! I was beginning to think that I'd never have a spare moment again, but I found one. I have finished my tours and lessons for the day, and in a few minutes we will be having a pot luck dinner with our host families here at the American Home in Vladimir. The idea of pot luck is an American one and this is the Russians' first time. The food smells really good!

The last two days have been spent mostly touring the sites of Vladimir. There is a lot of history here, and a lot of beautiful scenery. Again, I could write volumes, but I am going to just let you know a few things about everyday life here in Russia.

1. There is no hot water. Every year for a couple of weeks, each neighborhood loses their hot water so that the government cam perform repairs. It is quite annoying. My hostess Galina is kind enough to warm pots of water for me so that I can have a hot "shower."

2. Russians love mayonnaise. It is on almost everything. Traditionally, most dishes are topped with sour cream, but since Russia has opened up to Western influence, many people have decided that they prefer mayonnaise.

3. It is quite clear that I am an American because I wear shorts, tee shirts, and sneakers. In Russia, women are always a little dressed up. Even if they are wearing jeans, they are wearing nice shoes (usually high heels - ouch!) and fancy shirts.

4. I saw the babushkas (traditional Russian grandmas) selling fruit, vegetables, and flowers in the street. There are many old people in Russia who suffered a lot when the Soviet system collapsed. Now they depend on selling things they grow in their own gardens to survive.

Ah, I am being called to dinner by my "families." Miss you!

Here at last!

Wow! It feels like a very long time since I made the last post. It took over 30 hours to get to Moscow, but it was worth it. After the plane landed, we had to travel about four hours to get to Vladimir, the city where we are living. This is a picture of our group receiving the traditional Russian greeting, bread with salt.

I am living with a very nice family. My hostess is named Galina. She has two children who live with her, Anya, 17, and Sergei, 25. She also has another daughter Lena, who is 29 and married and has a little boy named Grisha. He is 6 and very funny! Only Anya speaks English well, so this is a challenge, but I can see that Galina is a very kind woman and she takes good care of me. Galina, Anya, and Sergei live in an apartment that has 6 small rooms. Most Russians live in apartments. Some have little weekend homes outside the cities called "dachas" where they grow vegetables and fruits and just relax.

Today we had our first full day of classes at the American Home here in Russia. We worked on our Russian language and etiquette. "Etiquette" is a way of saying manners. It is how you should behave. There are some different customs between Russians and Americans, so in order for us to be polite, we must learn the Russian customs. The Russian language is a little difficult to begin with because the Russians use a different alphabet than we do. They use an alphabet called the Cyrillic alphabet, and we use the Latin alphabet. So I am learning my letters and sounding out words, just like I had to do when I was in kindergarten! But it is fun. I just wish I could learn faster so that I could speak more to Galina. After lunch, we went on a walking tour of Vladimir. It was the original capital of Russia, before Moscow, and is very pretty and has an interesting history.

There are so many things that I could tell you about Russia, but I must be brief. I will try to only write a few observations each day.

- It is common in Russia for children to live with their parents until they get married because rent is so expensive. In the homes, most people do not have "their own" rooms. All rooms are shared, but each family member will sleep in a certain room and keep his or her things there. Right now, I am in the room where Sergei sleeps, but we do not consider it "his" room.
- The food is great! Lunches and dinners are usually salad (not salad like we think of it, with lettuce and tomatoes, but some kind of cold dish, usually with meat). Then there is soup. A famous Russian soup is borscht, made from beets. After that is the main course, usually some kind of meat and potatoes. Russians also like their dessert! There is especially a lot of ice cream, and I have heard that they eat it even in the coldest time of winter!
- It is 9:30 pm now and still bright daylight. Remember how we spoke about the longer days during the summer closer to the North Pole? This is an example. When I am in St. Petersburg, even farther north, the sun might not set until 1 or 2 in the morning!

This is already so long. I hope to write more tomorrow. I am having a very good time and learning a lot.

One day left!

We're leaving for Russia tomorrow and I'm so excited! For the last five days I have been at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The other 14 teachers and I who are going on the trip have been listening to lectures and sharing ideas. It's been great! (Believe it or not, when you get older, you might enjoy lectures, too!) The other teachers are a lot of fun. We are from all over the country, and we're all different ages and teach different grades. It's going to be great to travel with them. We all have a good sense of humor and we've all traveled a bit already, so we can help each other out, which is really important when you are traveling. Tomorrow we have to catch a bus at 3:30 in the morning to get to the airport. From Illinois we are flying to Atlanta, and then from Atlanta to Moscow. Once we reach Moscow, we have a van ride of a few hours to get to Vladimir, the city where we will be staying for the first 2 weeks. It's going to be a lot of traveling, and really exhausting, but it will definitely be worth it. In just a few minutes we teachers are going out to dinner - our last American meal for a month! I hope that I'll be able to write again on Tuesday or Wednesday!